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^'2dSe°sS.n'') HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES {^^^""oT' 



Benjamin Franklin Marsh 

(Late a Representative from Illinois) 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



* 



Fifty-ninth Congress 
First and Second Sessions 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
April 15, 190b 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
February 9, 1907 



Compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing 



WASHINGTON : : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : : I'JO/ 






MAY 29 1907 
D. ofD. 




ffii3ffioSsc3=i]/ayoiia i?»2J£iia§M 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Proceedings in the House 5 

Prayer by Rev. Henrj' N. Couden, D. D 7 

Memorial address by — 

Mr. McKiNNEY, of Illinois 9 

Mr. Gr.^FF, of Illinois l6 

Mr. Grosvenor, of Ohio 22 

Mr. KeiFER, of Ohio 26 

Mr. Prince, of Illinois 30 

Mr. RiiiiENBERG, of Illinois 35 

Mr. I'l'LLER, of Illinois 39 

Mr. Wiley, of Alabama 44 

Mr. Madden, of Illinois 47 

I'roceedings in the Senate. 51 

Memorial address by — 

Mr. CULLOM, of Illinois 55 

Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois 59 

3 



Death of Representative Benjamin F. Marsh. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE. 

December 4, 1905. 

Mr. McKiNNEY. ^Ir. Speaker, it is my painful duty to 
announce the death of a late distinguished Member of this 
House. At a later date I shall ask the Hou.se to set aside a 
day on which snitahle testimonials to his great work and 
eminent .services may be heard. I desire to offer the following 
resolution, which I send to the Clerk's desk, and move its 
adoption. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Ki'so/vfd, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
of Hon. Benjamin F. Marsh, late a Representative from the State of 
Illinois. 

Resolved, That the Clerk of the House be directed to transmit this res- 
olution to the Senate and a copy thereof to the family of the deceased. 

The resolution was agreed to. 

Mr. McKiNNEY. Mr. Speaker, as a further mark of the 
respect in which we hold the memory of the deceased Member, 
Benj.\min F. Marsh, I move that the House do now adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to. 

Accordingly (at 3 o'clock and 37 minutes ) the House ad- 
journed until 12 o'clock noon to-morrow. 

5 



6 Memorial Addresses: Benjamin Franklin Marsh 

March 7, 1906. 

Mr. McKiNNEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for 
the pre.sent consideration of an order fixing a day for memorial 
addresses on the life, character, and services of the late Hon. 
Benjamin F. Marsh, of Illinois. 

There was no objection. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Ordered, That a session of the House be held on Sunday, April 15, 1906, 
and that the day be set apart for addresses on the life, character, and 
public services of Hon. Benjamin F. Marsh, late a Member of the 
House of Representatives from the State of Illinois. 

The vSpeaker. Is there objection to the present considera- 
tion of the order which the Clerk has just reported? [After a 
pause.] The Chair hears none. The question is on agreeing 
to the order. 

The question was taken; and the order was agreed to. 



Proceedings in the House 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES. 

Sunday, April /f, rgo6. 

The House was called to order at 12 o'clock noon l)y the 

Clerk, Hon. Alexander McDowell, who read the following 

communication from the Speaker; 

April 15, 1906. 
I hereby designate Hon. J. Warren Keifer to act as Speaker pro tempore 
for this day. 

J. G. Cannon. 

Thereupon Mr. Keifer took the chair as Speaker pro tem- 
pore. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., offered the 
following prayer: 

Eternal God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for all 
the revelations Thou hast made of Thyself which enable us 
to interpret life, especially for that light which broke in 
splendor upon the world nineteen hundred >'ears ago in the 
resurrection of Thy Son Jesus Christ, demonstrating the im- 
mortality of the soul and the unbroken continuity of life. 
Help us, we beseech Thee, so to live that each day shall be 
a preparation for the next, so that when we are called to the 
higher life we shall be prepared for whatever awaits us 
there. 

We realize the fitness of this service here to-day in memory 
of one who .served with distinction for many years upon the 
floor of this Hou.se. A .scholar, a statesman, a brave and 
gallant soldier, clear in his conceptions, ])ure in his motives, 
true to his convictions, he .sensed his people, his State, and 
nation with honor and integritv, and leaves behind him a 



8 Memorial Addresses : Beiijavun Franklin Marsh 

record worthy of emulation, and maj^ the memory of his 
faithful service quicken us to nobler life and activity. In 
Jesus Christ, oi:r Lord. Amen. 

The Journal of the proceedings of yesterday was read and 
approved. 

The Speaker pro tempore. This day's proceedings have 
been set aside especially for memorial addresses in honor of 
the late Benjamin F. Marsh, a Representative in Congress 
and a Member-elect of the Fift}-niiUh Congress. 

Mr. McKiNNEY. Mr. .Speaker, I offer the following resolu- 
tions and move their adoption: 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That in pursuance of the special order heretofore adopted, the 
House now proceed to pay tribute to the memory of Hon. Benj.^min F. 
Marsh, late a Member of this House from the State of Illinois. 

Resolved, That as a special mark of respect to the memory of the de- 
ceased, and in recognition of his distinguished public career, the House 
at the conclusion of the exercises to-day shall stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to the family 
of the deceased. 

The resolutions were considered, and unanimously agreed to. 

Mr. McKiNNEV. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous cou,sent that 
leave be granted for members to print remarks relating to 
these exercises for ten days. 

The Speaker pro tempore. Without objection, the request 
will be granted. 

There was no objection. 



Address of Mr. McKiiiiicy, of Illinois 



Address of Mr. McKinney, of Illinois. 

Mr. Speaker, it was my sad dut\- on the first day of this 
session to give formal notice of the death of the late Benja- 
min F. Marsh, for many years a distinguished Member of this 
House from Illinois, and to state that at another time I would 
ask that a day be set apart for the proper consideration of his 
life, character, and valuable public .services. 

On March 7, by special order, this day was selected for these 
memorial exercises, and we have a.ssembled this afternoon to 
pay a last tribute of respect to one who bravely and honorably 
met his respou.sibilities and who left behijid him the record of 
a noble and patriotic life. 

I shall not undertake, in the brief time I shall occupy, an 
extended review of his career, and, indeed, that would seem 
unnecessary, as in a larger measure than comes to most men 
the record of his deeds is written in the history of his country. 

I shall, however, refer to the more important events of his 
busy life, and to tho.se circumstances which molded and directed 
his cour.se and finall}' fitted him for a rare and splendid citi- 
zenship. 

Benjamin Franklin Marsh was born in Wythe Township, 
Hancock County, 111., on November 19, 1835. His early years 
were pa.ssed upon a farm, where he acquired the rudiments of 
his education in the local .schools. During a .simple, frugal 
boyhood, amid whole.some surroundings, was laid the founda- 
tion of his strong and rugged character. In those formative 
^•ears he acquired an interest in rural life and rural pursuits 
which never ceased, but rather strengthened with increasing 
vears. 



lo Monorial Addresses: Benjamin Franklin Marsh 

When the shadows had begun to lengthen, when burdens 
grew heavy and hard to bear, no days were so happy as those 
spent upon the farm where he was born; and the old home- 
stead, so fruitful of cherished memories, remained his dearest 
possession until the final summons came. 

When 14 years of age his father sent him to Jubilee College, 
located near Peoria, where for four j^ears, under the wise direc- 
tion of Bishop Chase, he diligently and faithfully pursued his 
studies. He labored earnestly to prepare himself for the obli- 
gations and responsibilities which even then he realized man- 
hood would impose upon him. 

His college course finished, he took up the study of law in 
the office of his brother. Judge J. W. Marsh, at Warsaw, being 
admitted to the bar in 1S60, and afterwards associated with his 
brother in active practice. 

During the same year, in flattering recognition of his talent, 
he was nominated as Republican candidate for State's attorney 
for the counties of Hancock and Adams, l)ut, the district being 
largely Democratic, he failed of election. 

And now while upon the very threshold of a cherished pro- 
fessional career, with the future seemingly assured, and success 
almost within his grasp, there came to him that summons 
which throughout his life proved irresistible and imperative — 
the call of duty. And when it came he did not deliberate, he 
did no,t hesitate nor count the cost. Danger threatened his 
country, brave men were needed, and personal interests were 
forgotten. At the first clash of arms he promptly tendered to 
the governor of Illinois a company of mounted men, but cavalry 
not being included in the first call for troops the offer was 
declined. 

Being eager to go to the front, on May 24, 1S61, he was 
mustered into ser\-ice as second lieutenant of Company D, Six- 



Address of Mr. McKiiuwy, of Tllinois ii 

teenth Illinois Infantry, and the same day was made quarter- 
master of the regiment. 

On July 4, 1861, while serving with his regiment in Missouri, 
a telegram came from the governor stating his former tender 
of moiuited troops would now be accepted. He returned at 
once to Warsaw, recruited the company, and on August 12, 
1861, again entered the service as captain of Company G, Sec- 
ond Illinois Cavalry. With this splendid regiment he was 
identified until the clo.se of the war, performing brave and 
valuable service in every Southern State excepting \'irginia 
and the two Carolinas. 

On January i, 1863, he was promoted to the rank of major. 
On May 4, 1864, he was made lieutenant-colonel, and soon after, 
and until hostilities cea.sed, was in connnand of the regiment. 

He .saw much hard service and participated in many battles. 
The records of the War Department show that he was wounded 
in action at Holly Springs, Miss., on December 20, 1862, and 
during the course of his campaigns he received four gunshot 
wounds. And yet, despite his wounds and the suffering and 
disabilit>- occasioned thereby, he remained at the front in active 
service until he was honorably discharged at San Antonio, 
Tex., on November 22, 1865. 

Strong, .self-reliant, purposeful, he was ever a brave and 
efficient .soldier, and his war record stands as a jiroud testimo- 
nial to his valiant patriotism. He was a fighting soldier and 
preferred the field of battle to the mock heroics of dress parade. 
His old comrades throughout the country still delight to relate 
the many heroic deeds he performed. There was no more wel- 
come gtiest at reunion and camp fire than Colonel Marsh, and 
no one was listened to more attentively. His stories of camp 
and field and weary march were graphic portrayals of army life 
as seen through a soldier's eyes. Throughout the war, appar- 



12 Memorial Addresses: Benjaiin'u Franklin Marsh 

ently unacquainted with fear, the only sohcitude he expressed 
was for the comfort and welfare of those under his command. 
It is not surprising that such a leader should win the hearts of 
his comrades in arms, nor that he should gain and retain the 
respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens throughout his 
entire life. 

At the close of the war he returned to Warsaw and resumed 
the practice of law. He was thus engaged until his election 
from the Tenth district in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress. 
From that time on liis life was again devoted to the service of 
his country. He was well equipped for public .station, and 
after his election he entered upon the new field of effort with 
the same fearlessness, the same patriotic devotion that charac- 
terized him during the time of war. Neither his courage nor 
his sincerity was ever doubted. In Congress he stood for what 
he believed was right, without regard to personal consequences. 
In fact, he had risen above the thought of seeking personal 
success. He desired in the highest sense to be a public servant, 
and all his plans and purposes had in mind the welfare of the 
people. Careful, prudent, deliberative, in one direction alone 
he seemed to cast conser\'atism to the winds, and that was as 
the advocate, the champion of the interests of the old soldier. 

After .serving three terms in Congre.ss he was defeated for 
reelection in 1882, on account of a lack of harmony among the 
part)- leaders of his district. 

Philosophically accepting his defeat he returned to his home, 
where he engaged in an avocation he dearly loved, being that 
of general farming and stock raising. 

But this restful period was of short duration. In 1888 he 
was a delegate to the Republican national convention. 

The following year he was appointed by his lifelong friend, 
Governor Oglesby, railroad and warehouse commissioner of 



Address of Mr. McKiimcy, of Illinois 13 

Illinois, and served the State with signal ability in that impor- 
tant position for four \-ears. In 1892 he reentered Congress 
from the Fifteenth Illinois district, being elected to the Fifty- 
fourth, P'ifty-fifth, and Fifty-sixth Congresses. He failed of 
election to the Fifty-seventh Congress in 1900, his district being 
doubtful, with a normal Democratic majority which even he 
could not always overcome. Under the reapportionment which 
followed in 1901 he was placed in the Fourteenth district, and 
from the new district was again elected by large majorities in 
1902 and 1904 to the Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth Congresses, 
the peopl^ thus clearly indicating that there had been no abate- 
ment of their confidence and respect. His physical health, 
however, was visibly failing, and the weight of years pressed 
heavily upon him. He suffered an attack of pneumonia during 
January, 1905. from which he never recovered. The end was 
near, and his death occurred on June 2, 1905, after a protracted 
illness following the sudden demise of his beloved wife on 
March i.S of the same year, and from which severe blow in his 
enfeebled condition he was unable to rally. He died as the 
soldier-state.sman would prefer to die, with the harness on, with 
his face toward the front, and striving to the last to better the 
condition of his fellow-man. 

I shall not attempt to consider his Congressional career. 
There are those present to-day who served with him in this 
House for many years and whose knowledge of his ser\-ices 
here was derived from clo.se personal association. A tribute of 
respect from these a.ssociates and colleagues will possess especial 
value, based as it \vill be upon the insight and knowledge of 
intimate relationship. I leave to these friends the .story of his 
Congressional services. 

My own acquaintance with Colonel Marsh began thirty 
years ago, when he first entered Congress. It was my good 



14 Memorial Addresses : Benjamin Franklin Marsh 

fortune to meet him frequently thereafter during the remain- 
der of his Hfe. He always impressed me as being a man of 
purposes, of convictions. There was that about him which 
proclaimed the leader, not by assumption but by right. Stal- 
wart, rugged, strong, he seemed naturally to assume the attitude 
and bearing of a soldier, and yet he had a kindly face and 
from his eyes there shone a look of genial interest. Earnest 
and outspoken, he was always fair-minded and sincere. He 
asked no advantage of any man nor would he accept one. 
He granted to all and demanded in return fair play. As he 
grew older he loved more and more to talk of his army life — of 
the days when he rode with the boys in blue. He loved to 
meet the veterans of whatever branch of the .service. Each 
soldier was to him a kinsman, and one of the dearest words 
he knew was "Comrade." At all times and everywhere he 
was known and deserved to be known as the soldier's true and 
loyal friend. 

I doubt if any man in public life during this generation had 
the interests of the old soldiers more closely at heart. During 
his many years of public life he secured relief through pen- 
sions and otherwise for an immense number of veterans and 
their families. He never wearied of serving them and always 
followed up their claims with faithful persistence. 

And here I may say I have been impressed with the fact that 
although for years he suffered from wounds received in battle 
he seemingly forgot his own just right to recognition. The 
records of the Pension Office disclose no claim ever filed in his 
own behalf. And thus again was shown a .striking character- 
istic of the man — thoughtfulness of others, indifference toward 
self. Like the sturdy oak, willing to give support and protec- 
tion to all about him, he stood alone and would not ask for 
personal favors. 



Address of Mr. McKiiuicy, of Illinois 15 

And thus he Hved and wrought throughout his day. 
Stanchly he stood for the eternal right. Bravely he had 
taken up the burdens of life. Loyally and far he had borne 
them, and now at the end of the way, with his course com- 
pleted, contentedly and without regret he yielded to others 
duties and responsibilities no longer his. At the biblical limit 
of time his life's history was ended. His work was finished; 
dear ones had gone before. He yearned to hear the la.st call, 
and when it sounded, respected by all who knew him, loved and 
honored by associates and friends, he calmly paid the final 
tribute of mortality. He left behind him a record of unfalter- 
ing devotion to country, home, and friends that was untar- 
nished, inisullied, and that should not perish from the earth. 



i6 Memoi-ial Addresses: Benjamin Franklin Marsh 



Address of Mr. Graff, of Illinois. 

Mr. Speaker: We are here this afternoon to pay a tribute 
to a man who was a very marked type of a class of men almost 
entirely passed away. He had lived the allotted period of 
seventy years, but the number of times he had seen the hour- 
glass turn is of little importance as compared with the purposes 
to which his life was devoted. His was a career filled with 
stirring and interesting events and continued activities, mental 
and physical, to its close. He belonged to the beginnings of 
the settlement in the State of Illinois, one of those States 
which were settled without the medium of the railroad, when 
the only means of transportation were the highways that the 
rivers furnished and the scattered trails traversed by the 
adventurous settler in the prairie .schooner. Born amidst this 
pioneer life in 18,^5, he witnessed the incoming of the inuiii- 
grants from the South and from the Southwest, and from the 
East, from the New England States, each group contributing 
its peculiar political and religious ideas, and forming factors 
of the great discussion upon slavery, of which Illinois was so 
interesting and important a center. 

He .saw the .settlers leave the richer prairie lands to the 
undisputed possession of the wild flowers and build their first 
homes in the less fertile woodlands along some stream for 
better protection from the winds and weather, and form mate- 
rial for their rude cabins and furniture. 

The citizens of that early day were necessarily isolated. It 
gave to them opportunity for reflection that a denser popula- 
tion would not have afforded. It developed philosophers and 
independent thinkers. Every man is largely created by his 



AMn-ss of Mr. Graff, of Illinois 17 

environment. The philosophy and rugged honesty of pioneer 
life were woven into the character of Lincoln and helped to 
create him even as it entered into the brave soldier and states- 
man whom to-day we remember, Col. Benjamin F. Marsh. 

The open-air life and the very hardships of that time con- 
tributed to that .splendid physique and erect, fearless, forceful 
bearing and commanding figure which were his. 

He continued to be fond of outdoor life. He was fond of 
outdoor .sports and phy.sical exerci.se to the very last. He had 
some pride in his hard}- j-onng manhood and told me of an 
incident which occurred at a little Episcopalian college at 
Jubilee. Peoria County, 111., when he attended there as a 
student. In midwinter his college mates dared him to plunge 
into a little lake and swim across. Nothing daunted, he 
plunged in and accomplished the feat, sufTering no perceptible 
consequences of his rash act. On account of the lack of roads 
in the early day horseback riding was universal. He delighted 
in it. Little did he think that one day this accomplishment 
would ser\-e him well as the dashing, brave commander of a 
Federal cavalry regiment, sweeping over the entire area of the 
theater of war .save three of the Southern vStates. 

In his home county at Nauv-oo, 111., as a young man he wit- 
nes.sed the strangest political and sectarian development which 
perhaps ever occurred in this country. It was .so decidedly at 
war with our institutions and our inherited religious faiths. 
It was within a few miles of his home that occurred the ri.se 
and fall of the Jo.seph Smith .settlement. He witnessed the 
equally strange Mormon exodus resulting in the estal)lishment 
of another religious oligarchy far to the westward, whicli lived 
and reigned powerful, yet always in defiance to our laws and 
traditions, for a half century, not until now giving any real 
signs of submission. During the lifetime of Benjamin F. 
H. Doc. 802, 59-2 2 



i8 Memorial Addresses : Benjamin Franklin Marsh 

Marsh over half the States of the Uniou were admitted. He 
passed through a wondrous period of political and material 
development. He lived in the day when honesty was not 
enforced through fear of the law, but by virtue of the strength 
of public opinion. He lived in the time when personal courage 
was a necessity and when it was estimated as one of the highest 
virtues. He saw principles of government worked out and 
solved by the strong right arm and wrought only through 
human blood. He lived in a time when there was necessity 
for strenuous physical exertion for battling witli the elements, 
and that strong, rough life developed rugged virtues peculiar 
to that day and age, and his viewpoint of public questions was 
nece.s.sarily influenced by the manner of his development. 
There was developed in the pioneer a type of character pecu- 
liar to his own locality. It gave him a touch of individualism 
which can not be found in the later day, when men's environ- 
ment are largely alike and when we come in contact with the 
influence and ideas of all parts of the United States. Thus 
bred, he retained a picturesqueness that suggested the old days 
in his larger career. I was privileged to enjoj^ the favor of his 
intimate friendship. I know that he would be proud to give 
large credit to the manhood and womanhood of early Illinois 
for whatever he accomplished in the greater days of his life. 

To him the civil war, in which he engaged from i86i to 
1865, was a serious and a holy contest for human liberty and 
for the preservation of the nation. He never alluded to its 
experiences flippantly. Its issues remained to him solemn ones 
to his death. 

His career as a soldier remained, while other honors came to 
him, still the most precious. Leaving his law books, fresh 
from his admission to the bar, he recruited a cavalry company, 
which was not accepted. He was not to be deterred, however, 



Address of Mr. Graffs of Illinois 1 9 

from entering immediately into the conflict, and he enHsted as 
a private soldier, .serving a short time until he was summoned 
back to the State and commissioned as captain of Company G, 
Second Regiment of Illinois Cavalry. Afterwards he was pro- 
moted to major, and finally as lieutenant-colonel of the same 
regiment, which he commanded until his honorable discharge 
from the service at San Antonio, Tex., November 24, 1865. 

The Government records, which I have taken pains to ex- 
amine, contain many references to Captain, Major, and Colonel 
Marsh, and all furnish a story of faithfulness, bravery, and 
efficiency. He believed most thoroughly in the volunteer sol- 
dier as the means for furnishing the body of the future great 
army in times of war for the protection of the nation. He 
therefore took a great interest, as chairman of the Connnittee on 
Militia of the House of Repre.sentatives, in laws for increasing 
the efficiency of the militia in the States. 

His arni\- experience made him a valuable and able memlier 
of the Connnittee on Military Affairs during the period in the 
war with Spain. His later service in the Hou.se was on the 
great Committee on Appropriations, placed there by the Speaker 
of the House, his long-time and intimate friend and colleague. 

Sixteen years of total legislative service he gave to his 
country as faithfulh- and efficiently as he did formerly in the 
ranks of war. 

The strongest passion of his heart, I verily believe, was his 
love of country. He gloried in its power and influence, in its 
extending .strength and participation in international affairs. 
No doubt fretted his .soul in view of the unfolding new prob- 
lems which confronted the nation. He looked upon the flag 
as the old Roman looked upon his eagles. He was proud of 
the victories of our arms on land and the triumph of our Navy 
upon the seas. With the sinking of the Maiiir this old war- 



20 Memorial Addresses: Benjamin Franklin Marsh 

rior clamored restlessly for war, aud at its close he faced just 
as confidently its consequent problems. He considered that the 
resulting acquisition of the Philippines would give added oppor- 
tunities to the larger Republic in the field of commerce as well 
as in the dissemination of our political principles throughout the 
world. He believed in expansion. He believed in the constant 
trend of the past twenty-five years toward a larger national 
grasp of the affairs of the people by the Federal branch of the 
Government. He was a nationalist. He believed there were no 
dangers in the tendency of the present times, but was assured 
that that tendency promised our ability to fulfill our high duty 
and destiny as one of the great nations of the earth. 

He loved his party and was loyal to its principles in the 
same way that he loved and had confidence in the possibilities 
and powers of his nation. He believed that his party flag was 
very near to the national one. He beheved that the success of 
the party to which he belonged was a prime necessity for this 
nation working out its legitimate future. There never came 
to him any fine distinctions and questionings whether he should 
on some particular occasion follow his party flag. 

He was always in the ranks, a faithful soldier, obeying the 
political command of his leaders as he followed his military- 
commander on the field of battle. Most of us living to-day 
learn the history of this Republic from the cold and passion- 
less page. He learned the history of almost three-quarters of 
a century of time and events in the panorama of the perform- 
ance of the acts of living, breathing men which led to a con- 
stitutional evolution of the fundamental principles of our 
Government long before it was ratified in the regular way by 
the votes of the States. Therefore he \-ievved the problems 
which came to him during his service in Congress from a dif- 
ferent standpoint than do the men who ^•iew them from the 



Address of Mr. Graff, of Illinois 21 

staudpoiut of theory. His soul never quailed, therefore, in 
view of the larger field of action of the Republic. He had seen 
graver problems triuniphantl}- solved. He believed that we 
were destined to the same unbroken successes which had been 
our experience from the time that the constitutional foundation 
of our Government was first laid, with Washington as our first 
President. 

As I stood at the grave a few months ago, when his children 
cast in flowers upon his lowered body, amidst the silent homage 
of his comrades and neighbors, there must have come to those 
children and the assembled friends the thought which came to 
me and comforted me. It was that this was a life well rounded 
and complete, which had fully justified its own existence from 
a human standpoint. How full a fruition did he see, before 
he died, of all his hopes for which he had fought, and worked, 
and striven. So I say, peace to the ashes of this old Roman. 
All honor to the old fighter on the field of battle as well as in 
the forum of political discussion. There comes to us profit 
from a study of his life, from a reflection upon his devoted 
patriotism, his faithfulness to public duty, and his high esti- 
mate of physical braver}- as a virtue as well as moral courage. 



22 Memorial Addresses: Beniaviiii Franklin Marsh 



Address of Mr. Grosvenor, of Ohio. 

Mr. Speaker; It was stated to rae only last evening that I 
would be expected, if I saw fit to do so, to make a few com- 
ments upon the character and career of our dead Congressman 
from the standpoint of my knowledge of him. I shall not 
attempt to describe his career outside of Congress. 

The able presentation of the facts connected therewith by 
his distinguished successor leaves it unnecessary for me, even 
if I thought it wise, to do so. We only see one side of a Con- 
gressman's character here. Those of his colleagues from Illi- 
nois can very much better speak of his career in civil life than 
we can, and they have a much wider and more detailed view of 
his career in civil life than we can have. Now, I imagine that 
if some people had met Colonel Marsh sometimes on the floor 
of this House and listened to him for half an hour, they would 
not have gone away impressed with the genial, kind, and be- 
nevolent characteristics which his colleagues know he pos- 
sessed. The gentleman who has preceded me sj>oke of the 
old fighter. Well, he was a fighter in this sense: He had a 
great deal of confidence in several things, and when he had his 
mind thoroughly made up, I think he never yielded his opin- 
ion, and he fought for it in the sense he stood for it, believed 
in it, and never compromised. 

Now, I think one his strongest characteristics, Mr. Speaker, 
was this: He believed in doing the right thing as a Member of 
Congress regardless of anybody's opinion outside of Con- 
gress. He had an element that makes a man strong in the 
country. He had an element in his character the lack of 
which will destroy any man in Congress. The man who comes 



Aiidri'ss of Mr. Grosz'oior, of Ohio 23 

to Congress to vote as somebody out in his district wants him 
to vote might just as well go home the day after he gets here 
and save his extraordinary expense of living in Washington, 
and get out as soon as the two years roll around; because the 
man who does that will be dodging, dodging, dodging all the 
time, and the men who come to something here never dodge. 
Marsh did come to .something here, and Marsh never dodged. 
He said one da>', when some one here on the floor suggested to 
him that some element in his district would oppose .something 
that he was in favor of, that he was a .school-teacher as well as 
a Congressman, and he would try to teach those people that 
he was right, but he would not do it by dodging, by shrinking 
from the discharge of his duties. He was a man who .studied 
carefully the questions involved here. Sometimes long debate 
would ensue, in which he took no part, but always, if you spoke 
to him about it, if you discussed the subject with him, you 
found he understood it. He was a man who kept in touch with 
discussions and kept in touch with questions and always acted 
intelligently. 

His career as a .soldier was a career that he might well be 
proud (if. vet I never heard him boast of it. I never knew him 
to assert or assume any position upon any question that came 
up here that he did not assign as well to others. He was mod- 
est in asserting his own knowledge of military affairs, and he 
was modest in asserting the claims that he put forward to his 
comrades. He had the characteristic of a man who believed 
he was right, and stuck to it. He was a Republican. He be- 
lieved strongly in the Republican party and he believed in 
party organization. He believed what I believe, that we live 
in a country governed by political parties, and if he ever scorned 
anything with the bitterness of which he was capable, one 
thing above another, it was a man or organization which 



24 Memorial Addresses: Benjamin Franklin Marsh 

undertook to reform the world and the countrj- outside of the 
reformation that could be worked out through some sort of 
party organization. I heard him say one day that some reform 
movement that started somewhere put him in mind of tlie sud- 
den exhibition of growth in a tender plant. I do not remem- 
ber the plant that he indicated as his illustration, but he said 
the first frost would kill it. He believed just as honestly as he 
believed in his existence that if any other party than the Re- 
publican party got into power in the country it would be inju- 
rious to it, and therefore he felt it his duty to stand by the 
organization of his party; but no man ever heard him hesitate 
to speak boldly and strongly in favor of what he believed to be 
the duty of his party, and having done all he could to bring 
his party into line he then decided that its action was better 
action than he could probably find in the other party, and so 
he was a Republican, a Republican partisan, and he was one 
man who came to .something in the Republican party. 

No halfway man was he, no compromiser; and yet I believe 
he had as just an appreciation of an)' man's opinion as anybody 
else had, but, having made up his mind the other man was 
wrong, he never compromised with him. He belonged to a 
type of men who came to us from those Western States, who 
grow up there among the pioneers of the great States of which 
he was so proud, a State that has honored itself by .sending 
to Congress the great men that have come — the Trumbulls, the 
Douglasses, and the men of that early period, and then the 
present worthy representatives in the Senate and in the Gov- 
ernment. He grew up in the West. I do not know that it is 
especially important that he grew in the West, except that 
we know very well men take character from surroundings, 
from environment, and that environment goes down into the 
very ramifications of life in all its forms and surroundings. 



Address of Mr. Grosvenor, of Ohio 25 

The great prairies of the West, the mighty rivers, the great 
enterprises, the population, have always had their effect upon 
the growing generation of men, and Colonel Marsh came here 
in the fullness of his great power as a representative man of 
the elements of which he has grown up in the midst. 

I knew nothing of his army career and shall have nothing 
to say about it. It is a great thing for him and for his de- 
scendants, if he has them, that he should have .such a record 
as this. The country will never fail to remember a man who 
suffered and stood firm and carried out his principles afterwards 
as Colonel Marsh did. No sickly sentimentalism drove him 
anywhere. He went in obedience to the stern voice of duty. 
The House lost a strong Member, the State of Illinois a worthy 
son, and the Congress of the United States was weaker the day 
that Marsh died. 

So we come to honor him. We meet to express our loyal ap- 
preciation of his high character. We meet to pledge ourselves 
to renewed activity along the lines of patriotic action which 
he traveled. We come to leave the impress of our opinion and 
our judgment upon the written page, so that the young men who 
follow us may read and understand how much we value the 
stern and stolid characteristics of Colonel Marsh. His career 
was worthy of emulation, his record the record of a true Ameri- 
can. The memory of him will be talismanic in the history of 
the American Congress. May his colleagues, who have lost a 
worthy Member of a great delegation, copy his virtues and 
revere his memory. 



26 Memorial Addresses: Benjamin Franklin Marsh 



Address of Mr. Keifer, of Orao. 

Mr. Speaker: Benjamin F. Marsh, of Warsaw, Hancock 
County, State of Illinois, was not onh' my comrade in war but 
my personal friend. We entered this House of Congress (the 
Forty-fifth ) together almost thirty years ago. This is my brief 
and humble tribute to his memory. 

Besides being the possessor of a good scholastic education, he 
had studied and practiced law and was otherwise well equipped 
for the performance of the important duties of a national Rep- 
resentative, and this his long and faithful serv^ices here abun- 
dantly proved. He also belonged to the farmer class and knew 
their interests well. 

He served in the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh 
(1877-1883), Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth 
(1893-1901), and Fifty-eighth (1903-1905) Congresses, and 
was elected to this Congress in 1904, but died June 2, 1905, 
before he could take his seat. His total actual .service in this 
House was sixteen years, covering a memorable period in the 
history of his country, and during this period he actively par- 
ticipated in legislation, especially such as related to the Army. 

Though always a Republican, he was not a partisan in any 
offensive sense, his purpose always being to promote his coun- 
try's best interests. His service here covered the period of the 
war with Spain (1898), and he heartily supported the policy 
of driving Spain from the Antilles and from the continent of 
America becau.se of her cruelty to her Cuban subjects, a singu- 
larl)- new policy in the history of the world. No war was ever 
before declared or brought about between so-called "civilized" 
nations purely on humanitarian grounds; that is, by one nation 



Address of Mr. Kcifcr, of Ohio 27 

insisting on another surrendering its sovereignty over a part 
of its own country and the inhabitants thereof, its citizens and 
subjects, purely becau,se of the nation's injustice, oppression, 
and cruelty to them. Indeed, it is the only instance where one 
nation declared a portion of another free. So the joint resolu- 
tions of Congress of April 8, 1898, declaring "that the people 
of the island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and 
independent," and demanding of Spain that it "at once relin- 
quish its authority and government in the island of Cuba and 
withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban 
waters" was the first and only such declaration directed 
against another nation ever made in the history of the world. 
The year 1898 marks a new era in civilization, and the Spanish 
war stands as the first and only one brought on by the action 
of one independent nation toward another between which no 
international dispute or substantial cau.se for difference had 
arisen. Bknjamin F. Marsh by voice and vote upheld this 
new national departure. 

His long and distinguished .services in the civil war — 1861- 
1865 — also materially aided in training him for courageous and 
efficient .services in Congre.ss. He enlisted as a private soldier 
in the first days of the war and at once .saw active service. A 
few weeks later he recruited a company of cavalry and was 
commissioned its captain, and through conspicuous field serv- 
ice and for skill and bravery in battle he was promoted until 
he reached the colonelcy of his regiment ( Second Illinois Cav- 
alry), which rank he held until after the close of the war 
(January, 1866 ). He campaigned and fought in all the States 
where the war raged .save in Virginia and the Carolinas. He 
was distinguished throughout his army life for bravery, mili- 
tary skill, and good judgment. He fought in some of the 
great battles of the war and in many minor engagements and 



28 Memorial Addresses: Benjamin Franklin Marsli 

affairs, and he received four gunshot wounds more or less 
severe. He shed his blood for cause and country. Though 
his rank was not high or his command large, his achievements 
were always great and his honor luisullied. He, though less 
than 30 years of age when the war was over, proved himself 
equal to and worthy and capable of high command. If his 
name and fame were not heralded as far as that of other 
oiBcers holding more important commands, justice awarded to 
him equal honors with them. He earned his promotions on 
the battlefield. Without the matchless valor of such men as 
Colonel Marsh immortal military fame would not have come 
to the great commanders in that war. 

His whole life was peculiarly unselfish. He was not with- 
out ambition in war or peace, but his ambition was to do 
his duty in all relations of life. He had no vain profes- 
sions or pretenses. He was absolutely honest and was always 
plain spoken. He did not pretend to oratory here or el.se- 
where; he ripened his judgment by investigation and thought. 
He was not arbitrary in his opinions, but he was not moved 
to surrender a judgment once deliberately formed save for 
the most convincing reasons. He had in his private and 
public career the courage of his convictions. His plain and 
direct .speech made his whole life an open book. 

He resided, child, boy, and man, in the county (Hancock, 
111. ) of his birth seventy years. He was born on the frontier 
of civilization and among a sturdy, hardy people who took 
life seriously and who knew what liberty in our Republic cost 
and meant. They believed in peace, but did not neglect to 
assert the individual sovereign rights of man, and they believed 
in the equality of man. A test of that equality is that each 
man should fearlessly assert and defend all his own individual 
rights and concede the same rights to each of his fellow-men. 



Address of Mr. Keifcr, of Ohio 29 

Mr. Marsh's constituents knew him, and proved their con- 
fidence and faith in him by electing him to this House several 
times when his party (Republican) was not in the majority. 
His life and character might well be emulated, and should be 
pointed to as furni.shing the best example of the duties of citi- 
zenship well performed and of a life well spent. In the years 
of his life he .saw slavery abolished in his country and, as a 
consequence, largely throughout the world: he saw the Union 
of the States recemented more firmh' than ever before; he wit- 
nessed his country grow in population from about 13,000,000 
to 85,000,000; he saw more of moral and material progress 
take place than ever had taken place in a like period in the 
ages gone by; he saw civil and religious liberty mo\-e up 
higher and higher, and he died full of years spent in good 
deeds for man and country, and couscious that he had patri- 
otically done his whole duty. The world is better because 
Benj-\min F. Marsh lived. 

His life may be summed up as that of a typical soldier in the 
time of his country's need, of a faithful and capable statesman 
and legislator in the nation's council, and, above all, that of an 
exemplary citizen of a free Republic. 

Let the sound of those he wrought for 
And the feet of those he fought for 
Echo 'round his bones for evermore. 



30 Memorial Addresses: Benjamin Franklin Marsh 



Address of Mr. Prince, of Illinois. 

Mr. Speaker: On this beautiful and hallowed Easter Day, 

which means so much to the world, we have gathered to pay 

our respects to the life, character, and public services of B. F. 

Marsh, late a Member of this House from the Commonwealth 

of Illinois. It .seems to me that no words can be said better 

than what he said of himself. With his own hand he penned 

the following with reference to his own life: 

Benjamin F. Marsh, Republican, of Warsaw, Hancock County, was 
born in Wythe Township, in said county, and reared on his father's farm; 
was educated in private schools until 14 years old, when he was sent to 
Jubilee College and entered upon a classical course, pursuing the same 
for four years, lacking one year of graduation; entered the law office of 
his brother. Judge J. W. Marsh, at Warsaw, and was admitted to the bar 
in 1S60; same year was a candidate on the Republican ticket for the office 
of State's attorney in the district then composed of Hancock and Adams 
counties; the district being Democratic he was defeated by the late Cal- 
vin A. Warren, one of the best lawyers in western Illinois; under Mr. 
Lincoln's first call for volunteers, in 1861, he enrolled a company of cav- 
alry and went to Springfield and tendered the same for and dilring the 
war of the rebellion to Governor Yates, but as cavalry was not included in 
the call the company was not then accepted; on his way home he enlisted 
as a private in the Sixteenth Illinois Infantry Volunteers, then at Quincy, 
and served in said regiment in northern Missouri until, on the 4th day of 
July, 1861, while at Monroe Station, he received a telegram from Gover- 
nor Yates accepting his cavalry company; immediately going home, he 
in a few days recruited a company of Cavalry, was commissioned captain, 
and assigned to the Second Regiment Illinois Cavalry; he was finally 
commissioned colonel of this regiment and served continuously until 
January, 1S66, having campaigned in every seceding State except Vir- 
ginia and the two Carolinas; he received four gunshot wounds and carries 
in his body rebel lead; returning to Warsaw, he resumed the practice of 
law until 1877; in 1869 he was the Republican candidate for the constitu- 
tional convention; in 1876 he was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress from 
the then Tenth district and was reelected to the Fortv-sixth and Forty- 
seventh Congresses; in 1SS2 he was again a candidate for Congress, but 
was defeated; returning home in 1S83, at the expiration of his term in 



Address of Mr. Prince, of Illinois 31 

Congress, he engaged in general fanning and stock raising, and is still so 
engaged; in the spring of i S89 he was appointed by Governor Oglesby 
railroad and warehouse commissioner, and held the same for four years; 
he was a delegate to the Republican national convention in 1888; was 
elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, and Fifty-sixth Con- 
gresses from the Fifteenth district, and elected to the Fifty-eighth Con- 
gress from the new Fourteenth district, receiving 19,404 votes, to 13,195 
for J. W. Lush, Democrat; 1,1 iS for R. F. Kindler, Socialist, and 98S for 
P. M. Carrishon, Prohibitionist. 

A remarkable record of a remarkable man. A,s a former 
Speaker of this House, and now one of its honored Members, 
has said to us this day that he entered this House with the late 
Mr. Marsh in the Forty-fifth Congress, and served with him 
and watched his cour.se, and paid a high tribute of respect to 
him, so can we of a shorter period of service say likewise of 
him that he was a distinguished Member of this House in the 
Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, Fifty-seventh, 
Fifty-eighth, and Fifty-ninth Congresses. 

I have just looked at the list of members in the Senate and 
in the House from the great Commonwealth of Illinois in the 
present Congress. I find that there is but one member of that 
bodv, consisting of two Senators and twenty-five Members, that, 
like the late Mr. Marsh, served his country from 1 861 to 1865. 
This in itself is indicative of the changes that have come over 
this body and over this country since Colonel Marsh first 
became a Member of this House, and the changes that have come 
over the country .since he became a Member of the House after 
the great civil war from 1861 to 1865. Think of it, my country- 
men! The State of Illinois, that gave to the country the two 
central figures of the la.st century, that gave to the country and 
to the world the typical volunteer soldier of the age in which 
he lived — the great John A. Logan — is to-day represented in 
this great body by but one of the distinguished men who 
served with that distinguished group of men from 1861 to 1865. 



32 Memorial Addresses: Benjamin Franklin Marsh 

It shows that this, like other bodies, is a passing one. It 
shows that the splendid men who stood for something and per- 
formed those heroic deeds from 1861 to 1865 are gradually 
being gathered to the fathers and have gone to the other side. 
Other and younger men have taken their places. The great 
trust that they so well discharged, and that they handed to us, 
has been given for us to carry out and to see that that for 
which they wrought, that that for which they labored, shall be 
maintained and perpetuated and handed to others in the same 
manner that we received it from them. 

Colonel Marsh was a man that was loved by his fellow-men. 
It is my privilege now to represent two of the counties that he 
long represented in Congress. I have met face to face and 
have talked heart to heart with many of the old comrades in 
Schuyler and in Adams counties who served with Colonel 
M.\RSH from 1861 to 1865, who knew him intimately and closely, 
and I say to my colleagues here and to the country that each 
and all of them loved and respected their comrade. He was 
their friend and he loved them and they loved him — a strong, 
forcible character. 

It was nn* privilege to be at his home on the banks of the 
Mississippi when, in the mouth of June, we laid him away in 
his little home cemetery. 

I saw the concourse of his neighbors and friends as they 
came there to pay their last tribute of respect to their neighbor 
and their friend. As the last sad rites of the church had been 
said over him there stepped forth at the open grave a man and 
a comrade of his. He .said: " By direction of the deceased and 
at his request I want to sound 'taps' overm}- comrade." This 
promise was made by Mr. Lemuel Wiley, an officer of this 
House, to the deceased, as the two comrades talked together in 
the New Willard Hotel, and he made a trip of nearly 100 miles 



Addj-css of Mr. Prince, of lUiiiois ->^2> 

to carry out that promise that he had made to his deceased 
comrade and friend. As those "taps" sounded there that 
afternoon, so famihar to the soldier, there was not a dry eye at 
that burial spot. That was the token of respect and tribute of 
a common soldier to an officer of the grand volunteer forces of 
this country. To me it was one of the highest tributes that it 
was possible for one man to have paid to another. 

The more, Mr. Speaker, I travel about and meet my countr> - 
men, the more thoroughly I am impres.sed with the greatness 
of our country- and its people. Coming from the lowly walks 
of life, born in a countrj- \'illage along the banks of the Missis- 
sippi, mingling as an ordinar}- country boy among his associ- 
ates, there came up a man by years of growth to occupy a high 
and distinguished position in the Army of his country: there 
came up a man to occupy a high and distinguished position on 
the floor of the greatest parliamentary body on the face of the 
earth; and yet, during all that growth from lowly, humble life 
to the high station that he occupied, the hand and heart was 
ever grasping out and reaching toward his fellow-men \\\\o 
were moving along in the ordinary affairs of life. What other 
country can present such a spectacle? What other country is 
there that has within its limits men of that kind and character, 
ever sympathizing with the efforts of their fellow-men, as does 
this Republic of ours? 

I saw here just a few moments ago a former distinguished 
Member of this House, Gen. T. J. Henderson, who .served with 
Colonel Marsh on the floor of this Hou.se, and who, like him, 
has come up from the body of the people; and so, Mr. Speaker, 
can I say the .same of you, Gen. J. Warren Keifer. Of you, and 
men like you, our country should feel proud. You have made 
it what it is. But for what men like Colonel Maksh, General 
Henderson, and you and your comrades did from iS6i to 1865 
H. Doc. S02, 59-2 3 



34 Memorial Addresses: Benjamin Franklin Marsh 

we would have no countr}' to-day worthy of consideration 
among the nations of the earth. It is therefore well and proper 
on occasions of this kind to pay the respect that is due the men 
who preserved this Union, and whose lives and efforts from 
1 86 1 to 1865 gave to us, my colleagues— younger by far than 
those men — the opportunity we have to sit here with our col- 
leagues from the South as a reunited, happy, prosperous people, 
Hving under one flag, under one Government, managed, upheld, 
and controlled by officers of one Government, passing the laws 
that we do and being in full accord under the Constitution and 
laws of our country. 

I can .say no more, and ought not. I wish to pay my per- 
sonal testimonial of respect to the memory of the deceased, 
who was a strong, forceful character, loyally devoted to his 
country in peace and in war, and who worked and wrought to 
the uplifting of mankind; and there, on the banks of the Mis- 
sissippi, near by the waters of that great river, sleeps that 
great warrior, awaiting the call of the Father, when he, 
like many others, will join his comrades gone before, and at 
that great reveille join the great commander, Lincoln, and 
around him those other comrades who wrought the great work 
in this great country of ours — Grant and Sherman, and Sheri- 
dan and Meade, and the lesser lights— and there in that great 
assembly of splendid men will be found the strong, .stalwart 
figure of Benjamin F. Marsh. 



Address of Mr. Rodenbcrg, of Illinois 35 



Address of Mr. Rodenberg, of Illinois. 

Mr. Speakkr: The vState of Illinois has added many illus- 
trious names to our country's heritage of great and noble men. 
In the storm and stress of war and in the calm of peace, in the 
sunshine of prosperity and in the shadows of adversity, in all 
of the vicissitudes of our national life Illinois has never failed 
to discharge the full measure of her duty and devotion to the 
Republic. 

To-day we have met to pay a tribute of love and respect to 
the nit-niory of one of her nio.st distinguished .sons, a brave, 
manly, and courageous man who, in his day and generation, 
did his full part toward giving Illinois her proud place in the 
si.sterhood of States. 

Benjamin Franklin Marsh was a native of Illinois, and 
belonged to that splendid school of statesmen and soldiers which 
included Lincoln, Grant, Logan, Oglesby, and Palmer, a .school 
which made patriotism its watchword and duty its guiding 
.star. Theirs was the genius that had its origin in the loftiest 
ideals of American citizenship and drew its holiest in.spiration 
from the immortal principles of liberty and equality upon which 
the magnificent structure of this mighty Government has been 
reared. They believed implicitly in their country, in its 
hopes, its aspirations, its purpo.ses, and its destiu}-. As the 
clouds gathered and the gloom thickened their faith only grew 
the stronger. Civilization owes them a debt of gratitude which 
time can not efface and posterity can never hope to repay. 
They have bequeathed to us the priceless ^gacy of liberty 
under the law, and, catching the spirit that breathes upon us 
from their hallowed memories, we should pledge ourselves 



36 Memorial Addresses : Benjamin Fraiik/i/i Marsh 

anew to maintain tliis sacred heritage in all its purit\-, in all 
its strength, and in all its. glory. 

To me Colonel Marsh was the highest and purest type of 
the ideal citizen soldier. There was .something in his strong 
and rugged personality that seemed to form a link between 
the pre.sent and the heroic past. The martial spirit was ever 
with him. He was part Roman, part Spartan, and all Ameri- 
can. One could easily imagine him riding at the head of his 
regiment with drawn sword that caught its brightness from 
the ' ' princely gleaming of his soul ' ' into the thickest of the 
fray and into the very jaws of death. He was the living 
impersonation of the highest moral and physical courage, the 
embodiment of personal honor and personal bravery. Con- 
scious of the righteousness of his cause, influenced only by 
patriotic considerations of duty, we who know him well can 
readily believe that he would have willingly sacrificed his life 
in defense of the principles for which he contended. 

During the Fifty-.sixth and Fifty-eighth Congresses it 
was my good fortune to become intimately acquainted with 
Colonel Marsh, and the closer our acquaintance the greater 
ni}' admiration for his many excellent qualities of head and 
heart. When in a reminiscent mood no man was more inter- 
esting or entertaining. At such times he displayed a mar- 
^'elous and comprehensive knowledge of political history, and 
his keen anal3'sis of men and measures was as instnictive as 
his philosophy was profoinid. Always an inten.se partisan, 
with an abiding faith in the truth and justice of his party's 
principles, he adopted as his rule of political conduct the 
dictum , ' ' He serves his country best who .serves his party 
best." And yet, notwithstanding this intense loyalty to his 
party's decrees, he never failed to show the most tolerant 
and respectful consideration for those who suffered with him. 



Address of Mr. Rodenhcrg^ of Illinois 2>7 

Beneath the gruff exterior there was a knighth' heart of 
purest gold full of tender sympathy and Christian charity. 
He believed in the cardinal virtues, and manifested this belief 
in his daily intercourse with his fellow-men. 

For sixteen years he represented a constituency in this 
Chamber, and this long .ser\-ice is in itself an eloquent tribute 
to his personal worth and an evidence of his hold on the confi- 
dence and affection of the people who knew him best. En- 
dowed by nature with an intellect keen, discriminating, and 
alert, always cou.scientious and pain.staking in the discharge 
of his public duties, no Member rendered more faithful and 
efficient service to his constituency than our departed friend. 
We who .serv-ed with him will miss his wise counsel and valua- 
ble advice. We mourn his death because we loved him, and 
our sorrow is intensified b^- a realization of the melancholy 
fact that he was the last of that splendid galaxy of intrepid 
heroes, born of the heat and strife and blood of the great ci\-il 
conflict to s,er\e the people of the State of Illinois in the 
Congress of the United States. 

Mr. Speaker, one bj- one the men who helped to preserve the 
perpetuity of our country and its sacred institutions are join- 
ing that innumerable caravan that is marching in unbroken 
phalanx past the Great Captain for final review. In the beauti- 
ful cemetery of the picturesque little city of Warsaw, nestling 
gently among the mute, majestic hills, at whose feet forever 
roll the nmrnuiring waters of the mighty Missis-sippi, amid the 
happy scenes of his youth, beside the faithful companion of his 
long and eventful life, our friend is .sleeping the .sleep of 
eternity. Slowly and sadly we con.sign his mortal remains to 
the cheerless grave, and as the sods moistened by our tears 
close in above them we call and hsten. From the voiceless 
tomb there comes no answer. Only an echo which seems to 



) 



38 McDiorial Addresses: Benjamin Frank! in Mar sit 

mock our sorrow is wafted back. The somber shadows 
thicken. All is dark. We are overwhelmed in doubt. But 
suddenly the my.stic veil which separates the present from the 
hereafter is swept a.side. A light breaks forth. It is the light 
of the spirit of immortality, triumphant still, shedding joy and 
peace and hope eternal. In yon windowed palace of heaven 
we see this grand old patriot of ours crowned with a wreath of 
immortal glory, and among the myriad thousands who take 
part in the coronation we behold again the countless legions 
that offered up their lives on the altar of their country that 
"government of the people, by the people, and for the people 
might not perish from the earth." 

Mr. Speaker, on this .sacred Easter Sabbath day, while all the 
world is commemorating the resurrection of the crucified 
Chri.st, our thoughts wander back to the newly decorated grave 
in the little cemetery at Warsaw that contains all that is mortal 
of Benj.^jiin Franklin Marsh. To-day we remember again 
in ' ' what a forge and what a heat ' ' was shaped the nobility of 
that gallant, intrepid soul, and as we read anew the in.spiring 
story of his .self-.sacrificing devotion to the highest ideals of his 
countr}', with one accord we unite in the .sentiment so beauti- 
fully expressed by the poet: 

Rest on, embalmed and sainte<l dead, 

Dear as the blood ye gave; 

No impious footsteps here shall tread 

The herbage of your grave. 

Nor shall your glory be forgot 

While Fame her record keeps. 

And honor points the hallowed spot 

Where Valor proudly sleeps. 

Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight. 

Nor Time's remorseless doom 

Shall dim one ray of glory's light 

That gilds your deathless tomb. 



Address of Mr. Fuller, of Illinois 39 



Address of Mr. Fuller, of Illinois. 

Mr. vSpkakek: Without feeling tlmt I can add anything of 
importance to what has lieen said to-day, or what will lie said 
by others upon this sorrowful occasion, yet I can not let the 
opportunity pass without paying my tribute of respect briefly 
to our friend the late Hon. Benj.\min F. M.\ksh, who was in 
his lifetime one of Illinois's grand old men, who are .so fast 
passing away from the scenes of life or from active participation 
in the affairs of the world. 

He belonged to an age of great men, of men who became 
famous, who made Illinois great in song and in story; Illinois, 
the home of Abraham Lincoln, the great war President, and 
of Uly.sses S. Grant, of John A. Logan, of Richard J. Oglesby, 
of Thomas J. Henderson, of .Stephen A. Hurlbut, who all be- 
came famous during that period of the civil war as patriots in 
war, and afterwards as great .statesmen, .serving their country- 
with equally as great ability in civil life as they had .ser\-ed it 

in military life. 

Not without thy wondrous story, 

Illinois, Illinois! 

Could be writ the nation's glory, 

Illinois, Illinois! 

W'liat wonder we of Illinois are proud of that great State 
and of the great leaders slie has given to the nation. 

Benjamin F. Marsh was a friend and associate of Lincoln, 
and of Logan, and Ogle.sby, and the other great leaders of that 
time. With them he was endowed with a patriotic enthusiasm. 
He was what you might call an enthusiastic patriot, who be- 
lieved in his country and in its flag. He believed that his 
country was right, and even if his personal opinion happened 



40 Memorial Addresses : Benjamin Franl^liii Afars/i 

to be different from the position taken by his countr)-, he was 
willing yet to concede that the great majority was right and 
that his country must be right upon all great questions. He 
believed that it was and he saw it grow into tlie greatest 
country on the face of the earth. 

Reared upon the broad prairies of Illinois, coming to full 
manhood just as the great civil war broke out, when Illinois 
sent to the front more than 250,000 men to iight tlie battles 
of their country, he saw that war through to its conclusion and 
then he .saw all the great events that have occurred in this 
country from that time down to less than a year ago, events 
never equaled before in the hi.story of the world or of any 
other country or of any other land. 

He was proud of his country; he was proud of its achieve- 
ments, and he might well be, and he was enthusiastically for 
his country, first, last, and all the time. 

When such a man passes from among us and from the .scenes 
of earthly life, it brings us to the realization of the importance 
of doing while we may. He was a man who believed in doing 
things. He believed in action. That was one reason why he 
belonged to the Republican ])arty, becau.se that was a party 
that did tilings. It was the party that appealed to him. He 
had no use for a man who places over his mantle the skull and 
cro.ssbones and writes underneath, "What is the use?" becau.se 
he believed if we all took that po.sition, advance would be 
impossible, and the great achievements of this country would 
never have occurred. He believed in action and in doing things 
well while we may. Up to the day of his death he was found 
as actively interested in all the great questions coming before 
this Government as any other man in pulilic life. 

I remember a little over a year ago of hearing him talk upon 
the subject of the United vStates Navy. While he was a man of 



Address of Mr. Fuller, of Illinois 41 

peace, as gentle, as kindly as the immortal L,incoln, whom he 
loved and after whom he patterned, yet he believed that the 
great safeguard of human liberty and of maintaining the coun- 
try's greatness and power was in time of peace to be prepared 
for war. Therefore he was an enthusiastic advocate of a 
greater navy, because he thought he saw therein the future 
safety of the Government. 

He has gone from among us. Mr. Speaker, and no man who 
ever occupied a seat upon the floor of this Hou.se with him Imt 
what mourns his lo.ss. We in lUinois, who knew him better, 
who knew him during all the years of his active life, mourn 
necessarily more than others, because we knew him Ijetter. 
We knew him as he was at home — a pleasant, kindly, agree- 
able neighbor and friend, and as an honest man, the noble.st 
work of God. A man who never intentionally did a wrong 
thing in his life, and who would not for any consideration on 
earth. 

I contend. Mr. Speaker, there are great men in the world 
yet, there are honest men in the world yet, but there never 
was one more thoroughly honest and honorable in all things 
than Col. Benj.^mix F. M.^rsh. 

As one by one the members of the old guard pass out of this 
life we are reminded of what a lio.st of great names, names that 
will live in history, in .song, and in story as long as time .shall 
last, were developed and became known because of the great 
civil conflict between the .States, and the acts done by the.se 
men during that conflict and becau.se of that conflict, and the 
great questions following in the settlement and adjustment of 
the affairs of the nation, for which they had risked their lives 
on the fields of carnage. The names of these heroes f)f the 
civil war will ever be dear to every patriotic man and woman 
in the land we love and for which thev fought. 



42 Memorial Addresses : Benjamin Fraiikli)i Marsh 

Colonel Marsh did his full share in that conflict, and since 
and up to the date of his death did his full share as a patriotic 
American citizen, whether in public oitice or private life. He 
is gone to the home provided for all those who love and serve 
their God and their country and who believe in their fellow- 
man. It has been said that Colonel Marsh did not believe in 
reformers. He did not, if by reformers is meant the breed of 
persons who see no good, and nothing but evil, in their fellow- 
men — those who pretend to believe that every man in public 
life is a thief and a scoundrel, and who advocate replacing them 
by men of their own kind; that is, they would reform every- 
thing on earth if the dear, good people would only let them 
have all the offices. But somehow or other the good, common- 
sense people of this great country have generally been too wise 
to trust that kind of men witlr the governing power of the 
country. I think they will not .soon do so. I believe there are 
more good people than bad people in the world. I even believe 
there are more honest people than dishonest ones in public office 
to-day. 

In fact, when you come to think of it, there is much truth in 
the saying that — 

There is so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the 
worst of us, that it behooves all of vis to be fairly charitable toward the 
rest of us. 

I insist here and now that with all his positive convictions, 
all of his party fidelity. Colonel Marsh was a strictly, a rug- 
gedlv honest man in every relation of life, and that thousands 
of others in public life to-day are as honest, as patriotic, as 
tinselfi.sh, as devoted to their country as he was. 

This bright Easter Sunday we are reminded that the time 
will surely come to each and every one of us, as it came to 
Colonel Marsh, when we shall reach that dark flowing river of 



Address of Mr. Fuller, of Illinois 43 

death, which we must all cross, and the farther side of which 
no man living has ever yet seen. When we reach its bank we 
can not stop; we must go on; we must cross to the farther 
shore. I think in our hearts we all believe we shall there meet 
our friends who have gone before. I think it was Whittier who 
.said : 

Alas fur him who never sees 
The stars shine through his cypress trees, 
Who hopeless lays his dead away. 
Nor looks to see the breakinj; day 
Across the niournfnl marbles pla^-; 
Who hath not learned in times of faith 
The truth, to sense and flesh unknown, 
That life is ever lord of death. 
And love can never lose its own. 



Aud again : 



For love will hope and faith will trust 
That .somehow, somewhere, meet we must. 



I believe we shall meet him again on some other .shore, in 
some fairer land, where we shall all know each other better, 
where all the animosities nf life here will be impossible, and 
where a wider and truer and better existence will be pos- 
sible to all, at least who deser\'e it or have proven themselves 
worthy of it. 

We mourn for our friend who has gone. Perhaps if we 
knew more we should not mourn. It is only the farewell, the 
eternal farewell, that hurts. To him we must bid that eternal 
good-by, hoping to meet him again. And in the sorrow of our 
hearts we say, "Peace to his ashes, rest to his soul." 



44 Memorial Addresses: Bciijaiiiin Fraiik/in Marsh 



Address of Mr. Wiley, of Alabama. 

Mr. Speaker: A sentiment of sincere sorrow pervades this 
Hall to-day, in the death of this worthy man. His labors with 
us have ended. He fell at his post, ripe in years and full of 
honors. " After life's fitful fever he sleeps well." In a lonely 
grave in the far-distant West his body calmly slumbers. Upon 
his tomb the evening shades may fall heavily, "with night 
dews, cold and damp," but over it, too, the sunset will glow 
with purple and red, and the fleecy clouds roll by. Far above 
it will still shine the brilliant stars of heaven. While the sea- 
sons come and go, on this Easter morn we cherish his memory 
and will keep in bloom the fragrant flowers of deeds well 
done — of a career u.seful, honorable, and enduring. 

It is an old Talmudic proverb that ' ' when a good man dies, 
it is the earth that loses. The lost jewel will always be a 
jewel, but he who has lost it has just cause to weep." We 
mourn his death, but it is a con.solation to remember that his 
life is a rich mine from which the humblest actor can gather 
wealth. In business he was diligent and successful. In every 
earthly relation, wherever his lot was cast, he .sought to do his 
duty as he saw it, with the approval of a good conscience. lu 
his breast burned the holy fires of patriotism. 

In the storm of that fearful, fratricidal strife between the 
States he wore the blue. He fought his way from a private in 
the ranks to the command of a regiment in the field. No 
.shame or disgrace ever stained his sword. His bod 5', bearing 
the scars of four grievous gun.shot wotmds received in "battle's 
stern array," was a living witness to his loyalty and .superb 
devotion to the ' ' Star-Spangled Banner. ' ' He shed his blood 



Address of Mr. ]\'ilc\\ of Alabama 45 

tor the cause he beheved to be right. Gentle in reverence, 
loyal in honor, simple in faith, self-poised, chivalric, disdain- 
ing appearances, of stern honesty and unimpeachable integrity, 
posses-siug varied attainments and extensive learning, consid- 
erate, conscientious, resourceful, with an aptitude for detail 
and a genius for hard work, yet withal a strong parti.san, it 
was manifest that he had endowments which removed him 
from the sphere of the ordinary, which took him outside the 
pale of the commonplace and prosaic. His conduct at all 
times was such as to command respect and win admiration. 
As a logical sequence he was elected a Member of this Cham- 
ber, which has been described to be the greatest legislative 
body on the face of the globe. 

Alabama's .senior Senator, in alluding to the vast volume of 
enactments by Congress, not only directly affecting the welfare 
of eighty-five millions of people, but influencing the councils of 
kingdoms and determining the fate of empires, has declared: 

The House of Representatives of the people is not less powerful than 
the greatest tr-bunals that have ever assembled. The scope and majestic 
sovereignty of this power is beyond description in words, or by any 
reference to other systems of government. 

The confidence and esteem of his neighbors and friend.s — of 
the coustittiency he loved and honored, and who, in turn, loved 
and honored him — attested their appreciation of the efficient 
manner in which he discharged his Congressional duties, 
numerous, varied, and exacting. There was nothing negative 
iu his nature. His locality could always be ascertained. Dig- 
nified in bearing, of sound practical .sen.se, having his own indi- 
vidual, independent, and uncompromising methods of thought, 
of liberal views, and public spirit, he was in everv respect 
eminently qualified for the lofty trust he so long and ably filled 
as a Representative in the lower House of Congress. 



46 Memorial Addresses: Benjaniiu Frankliti Marsh 

From a character so exemplary the young men of our coun- 
try can find inspiration and take renewed encouragement. 

From his labors here he has been called away for rest and 
recreation. We do not believe, to quote the graphic words of 
the immortal Shakespeare, that he has gone to a "blind cave 
of eternal night." The spark of a noble life flickered a little 
while, and then went out. The lute is silent. The chords 
made of his heartstrings are broken. While with us all the 
"sense of death is most in apprehension," as the poet has 
aptly expressed it, we feel justified in indulging the buoyant 
hope that he has been translated to a brighter and better home 
beyond the grav^e, where the air is filled with solemn, entran- 
cing music, and the sky is aglow with the splendor of sunlight 
and perpetual spring; where the rumbling waters are dashed 
with the fragrance of rare and beautiful flowers, and the gar- 
lands woven from the lilies of the valley, are forever white 
and green. 

Let him rest and sleep and dream ! Upon the marble slab 
which crowns the mound where his remains lie buried we 
place with tender hands "clu.sters of beauty whom none can 
debar," the choicest roses culled from the garden of love, 
"white as the robe of a .sinless one and sweeter than Araby's 
winds that blow" — tlie last and purest token affection can 
offer to our departed friend and brother. 



Address of Mr. Madden, of Illinois 47 



Address of Mr. Madden, of Illinois. 

Mr. Speaker : I come to pay a brief tribute to the memory 
of a man whom I loved. Benjamin F. Marsh was my friend; 
between us a wann personal friendship had existed for years. 
I knew his temperament and he knew my temperament. Our 
esteem for each other was deep and sincere. The announce- 
ment of his death was to me a terrible blow. 

I do not propose to speak at any length of his Congressional 
attainments or of the many .salutary- measures he helped to 
enact into law. Those of you who ser\-ed with liini here in this 
House can best testify- to his worth and greatness as a legis- 
lator. It is to his splendid character, his noble manhood, and 
his loving disposition that I wish to address myself. 

Benj.\mix F. M.\rsh was not one of those men with whom 
an easy acquaintance and la.sting friend.ship could be secured 
at first meeting. He did not impre.ss favorably most of his 
acquaintances at finst appearance. His .stem features rendered 
him liable to the imputation of indifference to friendly offices, 
and yet it was but the appearance of coldness. No man with 
whom I have ever had an intimate acquaintance posse.ssed to 
a greater degree those traits of friendship and generosity which 
make the lives of some men so peculiarly sweet and beautiful. 

No constituency was represented in Congress b}' a more con- 
.scientious man than Ben Marsh. Of this I am ab.solutel>- 
certain, although I did not have the pleasure of serving with 
him. He was constant, indu.strious, and painstaking. He was 
an effective worker. He had the confidence of his associates. 
He never flinched from di.sagreeable duties. He was inten.sely 
patriotic. His love for his country could not lie estimated. 



48 Mciuorial Addresses : Benjaniiu Franklin Marsh 

He was broad in his conceptions and firm in his convictions. 
He was magnetic. He was chivalrous. He was courteous. 
Truth, love, courage, and intelligence were indelibly .stamped 
upon his strong but lovable face. Aside from all this, he was 
gallant. No one ever doubted his sincerity and courage. 

Colonel Marsh was born on a farm in Hancock County, 111. 
He received his early education in the public schools of that 
neighborhood. He .subsequently studied law and was admitted 
to the bar in iS6o. He .served continuously in the war of the 
rebellion from 1861 to 1865, and gained great distinction for 
bravery on the field of battle. From 1866 to 1877 he resumed 
the practice of law. He was elected to the Forty-fifth, Forty- 
sixth, Forty-seventh, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, 
Fifty-sixth. Fifty-eighth, and Fifty-ninth Congresses. 

I am told by his associates here that he made an ideal Con- 
gressman; that he did not attempt by much speechmaking to 
sway the minds of his hearers, but that he possessed to a prom- 
inent degree the art of presenting in conver.sation his ideas in 
such logical manner as to show that he was richh- endowed 
with those faculties without which his success could not have 
been so pronounced. 

He was no diplomat. If he could not win by hard knocks 
delivered straight from the shoulder, he was willing to lose. 
He never fouled his enemy, nor did he believe in compromise. 
He believed in just and beneficent legislation, but once lending 
his support to a measure he believed to be right, he would not 
willingly tolerate amendment. 

He was a man of action. He was bold, fearless, sincere, and 
honest. He was beloved as a friend and feared as an enem>-. 

In private life he was cordial, affable, genial, hospitable, 
sympathetic, and agreeable. That he was always clear and 
alwavs true can be testified to by hundreds of Illinoisans who 



Address of Mr. Madden, of Illinois 49 

have gone to him for advice and aid in times of trouble. His 
heart was as kind and sympathetic as e\er beat in human 
bosom. It was impossible for him to .say no when appealed 
to for assistance by worthy ones in need. 

In his death this House has lost one of its foremost Mem- 
bers and Illinois one of its purest and best men. 

Life I I know not what thou art, 

But this I know, that thou and I niu,st part; 

And when or where or how we met, 

I own to me's a secret j-et. 

Life! we've been long together. 
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather; 
'Tis hard to part when friends are dear; 
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear; 

Then steal away, give little warning; 
Choose thine own time; 
Say not " Good night; " but in some brighter clime 

Bid me ' ' Good morning. ' ' 

H. Doc. 802, 59-2 4 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 

December 5, 1905. 
death of representative benjamin f. marsh. 

Mr. Hopkins. Mr. President, I ask the Chair to submit to 
the Senate the action of the House relative to the death of 
Hon. Benjamin F. Marsh, late a Representative from the 
State of Illinois. 

The Vice-President. The Chair lays before the Senate the 
resolutions indicated by the Senator from Illinois, which will 
be read. 

The resolutions were read, as follows: 

In the House of Rhpresent.\tives, 

December 4. rgo^. 
Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
of Hon. Benj.^min F. M.\RSH, late a Representative from the State of 
Illinois. 

Resolved, That the Clerk of the House be directed to transmit this 
resolution to the Senate, and a copy thereof to the family of the decea.sed. 

Mr. Hopkins. Mr. President, I submit resolutions and ask 
for their pre.sent consideration. 

The re.solutions were read; and by unanimous consent the 
Senate proceeded to their consideration, as follows: 

Resolzed, That the Senate has heard with deep sensibility the an- 
nouncement of the death of Hon. Benj.^min F. M.\rsh, late a Repre- 
sentative from the State of Illinois. 

Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased the Senate do now adjourn. ■ 

The \'ice-PresidenT. The question is on agreeing to the 
resolutions submitted by the Senator from Illinois. 

51 



52 Memorial Addrrsses: Beujamin Franklin Marsh 

Tlie resolutions were unanimously agreed to; and in accord- 
ance with the second resolution (at 2 o'clock and 50 minutes 
p. m. ) the Senate adjourned until to-morrow, Wednesday, 
December 6, 1905, at 12 o'clock meridian. 

April 16, 1906. 

message from the house. 

The message announced that the House had passed re.solu- 
tions commemorative of the life and public services of Hon. 
Benjamin F. Marsh, late a Representative from the State of 
Illinois. 



Proceedings in the Senate. 53 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES. 

February 8, 1907. 
Mr. CuLLOM. I desire to give notice that to-morrow at 4 
o'clock I shall call up the resolutions of the House com- 
memorative of the life, character, and public services of Gen. 
B. F. Marsh, late a Representative from the State of Illinois, 

which are now upon the table. 

February 9, 1907. 

resolutions of the house of representatives. 

Mr. CuLLOM. Mr. President, I ask that the resolutions from 
the House of Representatives in commemoration of Hon. Ben- 
jamin F. Marsh, late a Representative from the .State of Illi- 
nois, be laid before the Senate. 

The Vice-President. The Chair lays before the Senate 
the resolutions referred to by the Senator from Illinois, which 
will be read. 

The Secretar}- read the resolutions, as follows: 

In the House of Representatives, 

April 75, i<)o6. 

Resolved. That in pursuance of the special order lieretofore adopted, 
the House now proceed to pay tribute to the memory of Hon. Benj.\jiin 
F. M.\RSH, late a Member of thi.s House from the State of Illinois. 

Resolved, That as a special mark of respect to the memory of the de- 
ceased, and in recognition of his distinguished public career, the House, 
at the conclusion of the exercises to-da}', shall stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to the family 
of the deceased. 

resolutions of the senate. 

Mr. CuLLOM. Mr. President, I offer the resolutions which I 
send to the desk. 



54 Memorial Addresses: Benjamin Franklin Marsh 

The Vice-President. The resolutions submitted by the 
Senator from IlHnois will be read: 

The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: 

Resolved, That the business of the Senate be now suspended that oppor- 
tunity may be given for tributes to the niemor)' of Hon. Benj.\iviin F. 
Marsh, late a Representative from the State of Illinois. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to the 
House of Representatives; and 

Resolved, That the Secretary be instructed to communicate a copy of 
the resolutions to the family of the deceased. 

The resolutions were considered by unanimous consent, and 

unanimously agreed to. 



I 



Address of Mr. Cullom, of Illinois 55 



Address of Mr. Cullom, of Illinois. 

Mr. President; I ask the indulgence of the Senate that I 
may say a few words of tribute and respect to the memory of 
my friend, the late Benjamin F. Marsh, who served for six- 
teen years as a Representative in Congress. 

I knew General M.\rsh intimately for more than forty years 
and always had great admiration for him as a citizen, as a 
soldier, as a Member of the House. He was a brave, .strong, 
sturdy character, of the type of the early pioneers, almost all 
of whom have passed away. 

Unlike most of the noted men of our State, he was a native 
son of Illinois, having been born in Hancock County in 1835. 
From his early manhood until his death he had a more or less 
prominent part in the public affairs of the State. Like many 
of the great men in our history he was reared on the farm, but 
his father was a man of means for those days and was able to 
give his son the luxury of a liberal college education. 

On leaving college he chose the law as his profession and 
was admitted to the bar in i860, just when the nation was 
about to be torn in twain by the greatest civil war of all history. 

As he was entering his career as a lawyer, President Lincoln 
issued his first call for volunteers, and young Marsh was one 
of the earliest to respond. Failing to secure the acceptance of 
a company of cavalry which he had rai.sed, he enlisted as a 
private in the Sixteenth Illinois Infantry, with which regiment 
he .served in Missouri. Later his company of cavalry was ac- 
cepted, and he was made its captain. It formed a part of that 
verj^ distinguished cavalry regiment, the Second Illinois. He 
was afterwards promoted, step by step, until he was finally 



56 Memorial Addresses: Boijainiii Franklin Marsh 

made colouel of his regimeut, in which position he remained 
until the end of the war. 

He did not receive his promotions as a result of favoritism 
or political influence. Every promotion which he received 
was for gallantry on the field of battle. The Second Illinois 
Cavalry saw active service in different parts of the country 
and participated in some of the greate.st battles of the war 
and in countless minor engagements. 

General Marsh's record as a soldier was a brilliant one. 
His bravery and heroism were never questioned. He served 
from the beginning to the end of the war, and his military 
record is one of the most precious heritages which he could 
leave to his children. 

For ten j-ears after the close of the war he practiced his pro- 
fession. He was a successful lawyer of far more than the 
average legal ability. Naturally he took an interest in public 
affairs, and was for many years one of the leading men in his 
section of the State. 

He was a Republican always. He witnessed the very begin- 
ning of the Republican party, in 1856, and from that time until 
his death he never for a moment wavered in his intense loyalty 
and devotion to his party. He advocated its principles on the 
platform, and as a speaker he was earnest, forceful, and effective. 

General Marsh during the later years of his life manifested 
a specially great admiration and devotion for two great men of 
Illinois — one, the present distinguished Speaker of the House, 
and the other, the late governor and Senator, Richard J. 
Oglesby. He was appointed by Governor Oglesby as a mem- 
ber of the railroad and warehouse commission of Illinois, one 
of the most important places in the State administration, and, 
needless to say, he filled it with credit and distinction. 

Aside from his record as a soldier, General Marsh will be 



Address of Mr. Ciil/oiii, of lUiitois 57 

remembered as a distinguished Member of Congress, where he 
served for sixteen years. 

He was elected first in 1877, and was twice reelected, retired 
in 1883, and ten years later was again elected and served until 
1901, when he was defeated by a small majority. His district 
was normally Democratic, and I doubt very much whether any 
Republican could have been elected. A new apportionment 
of the State having been made, he was elected to the Fifty- 
eighth Congress and reelected as a Member of the Fifty-ninth 
Congress. 

General Marsh was a very useful Member of Congress, 
attending punctualh- to his public duties, always having in 
mind the interest and welfare of his country, which he loved 
and had served so well. 

He was a prominent member of the Military Committee and 
chairman of the Committee on the Militia, and took an active 
part in framing all of the important legislation coming from 
those two committees. 

It was a great satisfaction and a matter of pride with him 
that he was a Member of Congress during the Spanish- 
American war. He was one of the earliest sympathizers with 
Cuba. His feelings were wrought up to the highest pitch on 
account of the inhuman treatment of the Cubans; he believed 
that war alone would bring about their freedom, and he was 
one of the most earnest advocates in Congress of the war with 
vSpain. He was never more earnest, never more the personifi- 
cation of the brave soldier that he was, than during this period 
in his advocacy on the floor of the House of a declaration of 
war. He chafed under the months of seeming hesitancy and 
delay on the part of the late President McKinley. An aggres- 
sive man himself, his sympathetic nature thoroughly aroused. 
General Marsh did not try to conceal his impatience. 



58 Memorial Addresses : Benjamin Franklin Marsh 

When war was finally declared, I believe, had his age and 
health permitted, he would have enlisted himself and gone to 
the front, where he would have probably been given an impor- 
tant command and would have been a distinguished hero of 
two wars. 

He witnessed with patriotic delight the success of our arms 
on laud and sea, was in thorough sympathy with the treaty of 
Paris, realizing its important results, and later saw with pride 
our country taking one of the foremost places among the na- 
tions of the earth. He believed in the doctrine of expansion, 
was not afraid to take up the white man's burden, and had 
supreme faith in the great future destiny of the Republic. 

General Marsh at the time of his death occupied an impor- 
tant position in the House; and, although a very aggressive 
man, having strong convictions and not hesitating on any occa- 
sion to give expression to them, he enjoj'ed in the highest de- 
gree the respect and esteem of his colleagues. He passed away 
at his home in Warsaw, where he was born and where all of his 
life was spent, an honored member of Congress and one of the 
foremost public men of his State. 



Addi'css of Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois ' 59 



Address of Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois. 

Mr. President: Col. Benjamin F. Marsh is a great figure 
in the history of lUinois. He was born in Hancock Countj-, 
that State, in 1835. Chicago was then a straggHng village 
of only a few thousand inhabitants and the northern half of 
the State of Illinois was largely unoccupied prairie. 

His father, who was one of the prominent men of his sec- 
tion of the State, owned a beautiful place in Hancock County — 
the same that was owned and occupied by Colonel Marsh at 
the time of his death. It was here that his early boyhood 
was passed, and under the environments of the pioneer life of 
that day his character was molded and developed. 

Fortunately for him, his father's financial condition was such 
as to enable him to give Colonel Marsh a liberal education. 
Under the direction of the famous Bishop Chase he took a 
four-year course at a .small college in Illinois. It did not have 
the educational advantages of a Yale or a Harvard, but in 
Bishop Chase he found a noble character, whose influence in 
the personal relations that exi.sted between student and in- 
structor brought out the finest traits of character in Colonel 
Marsh. 

Bishop Chase rendered a work in the then outskirts of 
American civilization that should make his name immortal. 
His life and great talents were devoted to the education of 
the young men and women of the then great West. 

Among the splendid men who justified the sacrifices that 
he made in the cause of education not one made a better 
record than did Col. Benjamin F. Marsh. After he had 



6o Memorial Addresses: Benjamin Franklin Marsh 

finished his academic course he commenced the study of law 
in Warsaw, Hancock County, and in due time was admitted 
to the bar and became a partner of his elder brother in the 
practice of the law. 

Illinois has an exceptionally proud record as respects the 
bench and bar of the State. Judges Breese, Caton, and Sco- 
field, on the State bench, and Drummond and Blodgett in our 
Federal courts in the State, will rank with any of the great 
judges of any other State in the Republic or with any of 
the distinguished Federal judges whose records have enriched 
the pages of the judicial history of our country. 

At the bar in Illinois we have had some of the most brilliant 
men that have practiced in any courts in this countrj' or in 
England. Stephen T. Logan, Browning, Lincoln, Colonel 
Ingersoll, Leonard Swett, and the celebrated E. I). Baker 
were lawyers who would rank with the bar of any State, and 
among this number were lawyers and advocates who would 
rank with any of the leaders of the English bar. 

It was under the inspiration and influence of such names as 
I have mentioned that Col. Benjamin F. Marsh commenced 
the practice of law in the little town of Warsaw, 111. He gave 
promise of a great future at the bar, but before he had been 
long in the practice of his profession dark clouds of civil strife 
overshadowed our national horizon, and when President Lin- 
coln called for men to defend the flag and the Constitution of 
our common country Colonel Marsh was one of the first to 
respond. He went to the front as captain of Company G, 
Second Illinois Cavalry. At the close of the war he returned 
as colonel of that regiment. 

This brief statement of his several promotions is enough to 
show the brave and fearle.ss soldier that he was. The Second 
Illinois Cavalry has a proud record. Colonel Marsh, as com- 



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Address of Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois 6i 

inander of the regiment, did his full share in making that oue 
of the first cavalry regiments in the Federal service during the 
civil war. 

My personal acquaintance with Colonel Marsh commenced 
many years ago at one of our State Republican conventions. I 
knew of him as having been a Member of Congress for a num- 
ber of years, and at the time of my personal acquaintance he 
was .serving as one of the railroad and warehou.se commissioners 
of the State under a commission i.ssued to him by Governor 
Oglesb}-, of that State. He presented to me a man of .strong 
per.sonalit}-. He was over 6 feet in height, and straight and 
.soldierly in his appearance, with keen and piercing eyes. He 
would attract attention anywhere. Our homes were separated 
by .several hundred miles. We met only on rare occasions until 
we both became Members of the Fifty-fourth Congress. I 
served with him in that Congress, in the Fifty-fifth, and Fifty- 
sixth. During this .service I learned to know him well and to 
appreciate the manly qualities of head and heart that he pos- 
sessed. There was no Member of our delegation who was more 
thoughtful of his constituents and more earnest in his efforts 
to ser\-e their many demands made upon his time and strength. 
It was a pleasure to me to see and hear him in a running debate 
in the Hou.se, especially in the consideration of questions that 
grew out of the civil war. He was an excellent debater, keen 
and incisive and direct in his utterances. He presented what 
he had to say with a force and fire that you would hardly 
expect in one of his years. 

His personal relations with the Members of his own delega- 
tion were always of the most kindly character; and what is true 
of them is true of tlie membership of the several Hou.ses of 
Representatives in which he .served. He was a strong partisan, 
and on all political questions was radical in his utterances: but 



62 Memorial Addresses: Benjaiiiiii Franklin Marsh 

he was always a fair fighter and always commanded the respect 
and admiration of his opponents. 

Colonel Marsh was popular with both Democrats and Re- 
publicans during his entire service in the House of Representa- 
tives. His death was not only deplored by the constituency 
that had honored him so many times, but by the people of the 
State of Illinois. We are proud of the record he made and 
proud of the ser^'ice that he rendered his State and his country. 



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